4. Why is it that mathematics education in the United States resists > change in spite of the many forces that are revolutionizing the nature > and role of mathematics itself?

I visit many schools - mostly elementary and middle - across the country,and I see multiple reasons for what appears to be resistance to change.First, many teachers and parents of their students have a number of beliefsbased on their own schooling that stand in the way of reform. These includethe belief that basic skills precede thinking - that is that opportunitiesto do mathematical thinking are privileges that students get access to onlyafter they have mastered basic skills. Some teachers and parents are alsointimidated by mathematics and think it is only for those with math genes.Many don't see it as learning that can be developed. Second, it is onlyjust now that teachers are *beginning* to be exposed to curriculum andtextbooks that reflect alternative ways of thinking. Some are trying theseand liking them (and they are most likely to follow up and implement themwhen the implementation is schoolwide or, even better, districtwide), butthen they face another hurdle and that is the challenge of explaining toparents why their children's math work looks so different from the work theygrew up with. So, sometimes what looks like "resistance" is less that thana lack of exposure and access to new ideas coupled with a lack of supportfor professional development. This is especially true in poor schools.(Has NCTM every done an analysis of its membership by teaching assignment?I run into few teachers in poor urban schools who are members.) Finally,many schools are still in the grip of policies that judge and rank schoolsand kids on the basis of mindless, short-answer tests. That creates anundertow even in schools that are trying to implement a different approach.(Keep up the questions, Ron. They are worth taking seriously.) Anne Wheelock